League of Legends Patch 26.10 is a major patch in the Season 2 cycle, and with it come big changes.
While we’ve covered the big changes to the core game in previous posts, 26.10 comes with some major changes to the way League of Legends is experienced. Riot Games is looking to bring the same “in-game” live auditing of players that we’ve seen in Valorant.
Is League of Legends ready for it? What are the changes, and will they have the same impact in a game that is often at a much lower pace than Valorant?
Disruptive Game Behavior
In patch 26.10, things are changing in LoL when it comes to how the game will hand out punishments. As things stand prior to 26.10, LoL will handle players after the fact. You might see your LP loss recovered or have a priority role queue for a few games. Overall, it’s ok, but it makes the experience at the time awful. Especially when the player in question can hold a game hostage. That’s all set to change in patch 26.10.
Riot Games has stated that “When we detect severely disruptivebehaviors during a match that add up to irredeemably ruining their team’s chances of winning. We’ll allow the team with the disruptive player to vote to end the match so that everyone can save themselves some time. The bar for this is high, and most penalties will still be distributed post-game. We’re looking to improve upon this system by proactively offering a vote to end the match when severely disruptive behavior is detected during a match.”
Riot Games has had many ways to try to curb disruptive game behavior in the past. With small punishments or by making naughty players “agree” that they understand.
Disruptive Game Behavior Voting
In a practical way, however, this is what is actually going to happen.
- When a player is confirmed to be engaging in severely disruptive behavior during a match. Their team will be prompted to vote to end the match. The disruptive player and their premade will not be eligible to vote.
- If a match termination vote passes, the team with the disruptive player will not lose any LP or MMR. The other team will receive LP as usual for a win. The disruptive player gets banned.
- If a match termination vote fails, the game will continue. The team with the confirmed disruptive player cannot lose LP, but has the opportunity to win LP if they can claim victory. This is primarily to avoid detected behaviors terminating matches that might be close to resolution. For example, when you’re about to destroy the enemy Nexus, but one of your allies a minute ago decided to sell all of their items and run in circles in your base.
Overall, the changes look good on paper. The third point appears to be the most important, as it means that a vote can fail, but the LP/MMR loss is still active.
It will remain to be seen how it works in practice, but on paper it looks like a good start.